BurfFntrafern  Mnivvicmfy 

Evanston,  Illinois  : June  19,  1901 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  of  ILLINOIS. 


ANNUAL  ADDRESS 

BY  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  ALUMNI  ASSOCIATION 
OF  THE  COLLEGE  OF  LIBERAL  ARTS 


CHARLES  WILLIAM  PEARSON,  A.  M. 

OF  THE  CLASS  OF  1871 


Alumni  Association  of  Northwestern 
University. 

[College  of  Liberal  Arts.] 


PRESIDENT’S  REPORT. 

A By-Law  of  the  Alumni  Association  requires  the  President 
to  make  an  annual  report  in  writing,  and  in  obedience  to  this 
provision  I herewith  submit  the  following  statement. 

In  accordance  with  a resolution  passed  at  the  last  annual 
business  meeting,  the  Executive  Committee  appointed  Dr.  E.  P. 
Clapp  and  me  a committee  to  ask  the  Trustees  to  bear  the 
expense  of  publishing  an  Alumni  Quarterly.  The  Trustees 
gave  a courteous  reply  to  our  communication,  but  on  discovering 
that  the  terms  of  the  resolution  requested  them  to  bear  the 
whole  expense  of  the  publication  they  deemed  it  inexpedient  to 
assent  and  discontinued  the  negotiation. 

A Founders’  Day  banquet  was  given  on  January  28,  1901. 
The  Alumni  Association  was  invited  by  the  Trustees  to  co- 
operate with  them  in  this,  and  our  Executive  Committee  deemed 
it  best  to  do  so,  as  we  wished  to  avoid  any  apparent  rivalry  that 
might  interfere  with  the  success  of  the  semi-centennial  cele- 
bration. The  attendance  on  the  occasion  was  nearly  450. 

I report  with  great  pleasure  that  a portrait  of  Dr.  Bonbright, 
by  Mr.  Ralph  Clarkson,  is  nearly  completed  and  that  it  will  be 
presented  to  the  Trustees  to-morrow.  The  money  for  it  has  all 
been  contributed  by  Alumni,  and  the  letters  from  older  and  more 
recent  Alumni  alike  in  reply  to  our  circular  have  been  most 
cordial  and  gratifying.  As  it  was  our  purpose  to  make  this  a 
general  testimonial,  we  asked  for  only  a small  sum  from  each 
subscriber.  We  expected  to  need  about  $300,  and  this  sum  was 


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readily  subscribed,  many  Alumni  offering  to  increase  their 
subscriptions  if  the  required  amount  was  not  otherwise  obtained. 
We  have  not  found  it  necessary  to  appeal  a second  time  to  any 
of  these  generous  friends.  The  treasurer's  report  will  give 
further  details  as  to  the  names  of  the  subscribers  and  the  amounts 
contributed  by  each.  Such  is  the  brief  history  of  the  joint  action 
of  your  officers  for  the  past  year. 

Let  me  add  a few  more  personal  words.  It  is  very  natural 
that  one  appointed  to  the  presidency  of  any  organization  should 
be  led  to  consider  with  special  care  the  purposes  for  which  the 
society  exists  and  the  ambitions  it  may  honorably  cherish.  That 
certainly  has  been  the  effect  upon  my  own  mind.  I have  never 
felt  so  keenly  the  great  powers  and  great  responsibilities  of  this 
Association,  and  I wish  to  state,  as  it  maybe  my  most  appropriate 
opportunity  to  do  so,  that  this  and  the  other  Alumni  Asso- 
ciations of  the  University  should  make  it  their  avowed,  their 
earnest,  and  their  persistent  purpose  to  exert  a strong  influence 
upon  the  policy  of  the  institution. 

Children  are  the  natural  heirs  of  their  parents,  and  this  is  as 
true  in  the  intellectual  as  in  the  physical  world.  In  many  of 
the  older  universities,  both  European  and  American,  the  Alumni 
are  by  charter  and  statute  the  sole  governing  body.  In  other 
institutions,  while  not  having  exclusive  control,  they  have  a 
legal  right  to  representation.  The  statutes  of  Northwestern 
University  make  no  provision  for  Alumni  representation  on 
the  Board  of  Trustees,  but  they  do  not  in  any  way  forbid  it, 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  Alumni  should  not,  in  course  of 
time,  secure  all  the  control  they  are  fitted  to  exercise  wisely, 
and  power  they  are  not  fitted  to  exercise  wisely  they  ought  not 
to  seek. 

There  are  two  very  simple  reasons  for  thinking  that  the 
Alumni,  next  to  the  founders  and  benefactors  of  the  University, 
are  its  natural  governors.  They  are  these:  The  Alumni  have 
a larger  knowledge  of  the  condition  and  needs  of  the  University 
and  a greater  interest  in  it  than  any  outsider.  Next  to  integrity 
and  ability,  special  knowledge  and  personal  affection  are  the 


iah  w . —Lib. 


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most  important  qualifications  of  a University  Trustee.  There 
are  few  Alumni  who  are  without  these  qualifications,  and  there 
are  few  outsiders  who  have  them  in  anything  like  the  same 
degree. 

There  is  an  analogy  between  the  relations  of  a citizen  to  the 
country  and  an  alumnus  to  his  university,  and  as  the  citizen 
at  the  age  of  21  becomes  a member  of  the  body  politic  and  is 
expected  to  take  an  active  and  intelligent  part  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country,  so  an  alumnus  ought  to  receive  a similar 
educational  franchise  and  be  expected  to  take  an  active  and 
intelligent  part  in  the  government  of  his  Alma  Mater. 

In  my  judgment,  this  is  not  only  theoretically  right,  but  prac- 
tically necessary.  Our  government  is  a democracy,  or,  in  other 
words,  a government  by  public  opinion,  and  in  the  formation 
of  public  opinion  the  universities  have  and  should  have  a very 
large  and  important  part.  A very  large  percentage  of  the 
teachers,  preachers,  lawyers,  legislators  and  journalists  are 
educated  in  the  universities  and  in  turn  they  educate  the  nation. 

Universities  should  be  and  commonly  are  among  the  foremost 
- of  the  agencies  by  which  knowledge,  virtue,  liberty  and  religion 
are  advanced.  Wycliffe,  Luther,  Milton  and  Wesley  were 
educated  in  universities.  But  it  is  common  to  dwell  unduly 
upon  a few  very  eminent  names.  I prefer  to  emphasize  the 
thought  that  the  great  body  of  steady  intellectual  workers, 
cKL>y  whose  wisely  directed  and  ceaseless  energies  civilization  is 
advanced  and  humanity  uplifted  “inch  by  painful  inch,”  are 
university  men.  This  is  so  obvious  at  present  that  it  may  seem 
that  we  need  only  congratulate  ourselves  upon  the  prosperity 
and  increasing  power  of  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  in 
America. 

Yet  history  gives  no  warrant  for  this  complacency.  Eternal 
vigilance  is  the  price  of  intellectual  and  religious  as  well  as  of 
political  liberty.  Universities  in  other  countries  and  ages  have 
sunk  into  indolence  and  worldliness,  into  sloth  and  superstition, 
or  have  become  active  propagators  of  error  and  instruments  of 
oppression.  The  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  were 


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among  the  chief  supporters  of  the  abominable  tyranny  of  the 
Stuart  kings.  Their  conduct  was  so  ignoble  and  servile  that  it 
is  not  without  warrant  that  Pope  sneers  at  them ‘in  this  couplet: 

“ May  you,  my  Cam  and  Isis,  preach  it  long, 

The  right  divine  of  kings  to  govern  wrong.’  ’ 

The  case  against  the  mediaeval  University  of  Salerno  is  thus 
expressed  by  Longfellow,  though  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  poet  speaks  dramatically  and  that  it  is  through  the 
mouth  of  Lucifer  that  the  charges  are  made : 

“ The  buildings  have  an  aspect  lugubrious 
That  inspires  a feeling  of  awe  and  terror 
Into  the  heart  of  the  beholder, 

And  befits  such  an  ancient  homestead  of  error, 

Where  the  old  falsehoods  moulder  and  smoulder, 

And  yearly  by  many  hundred  hands 
Are  carried  away  in  the  zeal  of  youth, 

And  sown  like  tares  in  the  field  of  truth, 

To  blossom  and  ripen  in  other  lands.’  ’ 

But  we  need  not  go  to  other  countries  and  remote  times  and 
to  the  poets  for  intimations  that  dangers  beset  University  life, 
as  they  beset  every  other  human  institution.  President  Hyde 
of  Bowdoin,  a few  days  ago,  delivered  a very  impressive  address 
upon  “Academic  Freedom.”  He  referred  specially  to  Brown 
University,  Chicago  University,  Kansas  State  Agricultural 
College  and  Leland  Stanford  University,  and  “sounded  a note 
of  warning  against  the  spread  of  what  he  termed  ‘ Rockefeller- 
ism’  in  the  American  college  of  to-day.’  ’ President  Hyde  thus, 
defines  the  new  issue  and  danger:  “The  question  of  academic 
freedom  did  not  rise  so  long  as  colleges  taught  Latin,  Greek 
and  mathematics,  for  the  simple  reason  that  people  did  not  care 
much  one  way  or  the  other  for  what  was  taught  about  these  things. 
Interference  with  liberty  comes  only  when  subjects  are  taught 
for  which  the  people  care.  Now  that  economic  and  social 
questions  have  come  to  the  front,  it  is  in  connection  with  them 
that  nearly  all  our  troubles  have  arisen.  Theological  persecu- 


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tion  we  have  wherever  institutions  are  tied  to  creeds;  political 
persecution  w~e  have,  spasmodically,  in  political  campaigns;  but 
popular  interest  is  coming  more  and  more  to  center  in  social  and 
economic  questions.  Unless  we  can  come  to  a clear  understand- 
ing  as  to  the  rights  and  duties  of  the  several  parties  to  university 
instruction,  professorships  of  economics  and  sociology  will  be  as 
perilous  positions  in  a democracy  as  chairs  of  politics  ever  were 
in  an  absolute  monarchy  or  chairs  of  theology  in  the  palmy 
days  of  papal  power.  To  define  the  rights  and  duties  of  the 
parties  to  such  university  instruction,  securing  reasonable  liberty 
for  all  and  a free  course  for  the  truth,  is  the  most  pressing  edu- 
cational problem  the  nineteenth  century  hands  over  to  the 
twentieth.’  ’ 

I do  not  wish  my  words  to  be  misunderstood.  You  are 
probably  all  aware  that  some  socialistic  speakers  and  some 
newspapers  have  charged  interference  of  the  sort  deprecated 
by  President  Hyde  against  the  Trustees  of  Northwestern  Uni- 
versity. I do  not  wish  in  anything  I have  said  or  may  say  as 
to  the  proper  policy  of  the  Alumni  Association  to  give  the 
shadow  of  countenance  to  that  suspicion.  I sincerely  believe 
it  to  be  untrue.  Our  trustees  are  men  of  high  character  and 
great  wisdom,  and  after  a service  under  them  of  full  thirty  years 
it  is  a pleasure  to  me  to  express  the  belief  that  in  all  their  acts 
they  have  been  governed  solely  by  a desire  to  promote  the 
highest  and  most  enduring  interests  of  the  institution.  Our 
trustees  have  given  unselfishly  their  time,  their  money,  their 
constant  and  anxious  thought  to  the  welfare  of  the  University, 
and  every  alumnus  owes  them  a deep  debt  of  gratitude.  The 
purpose  of  this  discussion  is  not  in  any  way  to  reflect  upon  them, 
but  only  to  show  how  the  Alumni  Association  may  co-operate 
with  them  and  help  to  make  permanent  the  work  they  have  so 
nobly  begun. 

The  University  stands  for  Christian  learning.  It  was  founded 
by  deeply  religious  men,  wTho  by  the  noble  motto,  Qucecumgue 
sunt  vera,  they  took  for  the  institution,  proclaimed  their  belief 


6 


that  truth  is  the  only  sure  and  eternal  foundation  for  education,, 
for  morality  and  for  religion. 

The  United  States  stands  now  for  inventive  genius,  for  manu- 
facturing supremacy,  for  commercial  enterprise,  for  popular 
education,  for  philanthropic  ideals,  yet  all  the  unique  and  many- 
sided  greatness  of  this,  the  foremost  of  modern  nations,  springs 
from  the  one  great  foundation  principle  that  the  intellect  must 
always  be  loyal  to  all  truth  and  the  conscience  must  always  be 
obedient  to  all  duty.  Political  and  religious  liberty,  a free 
church  in  a free  state,  is  the  short  secret  of  America’s  past 
greatness. 

But  we  are  entering  upon  a new  epoch,  one  of  unparalleled  ma- 
terial wealth  and  of  unparalleled  temptation  to  worship  the 
money-god.  We  are  morally  enervated  by  luxury  and  dazzled 
by  splendor.  It  is  easy  to  bear  poverty  when  everybody  is 
poor.  It  is  easy  to  live  simply  when  everybody  else  lives 
simply.  But  it  is  not  easy  to  bear  poverty  amid  wealthy  neigh- 
bors or  to  live  plainly  amid  ostentatious  ones.  We  are  all  in 
danger  of  being  swept  along  by  the  great  social  currents  of 
our  time. 

But  the  practical  point  from  which  I must  not  drift  away  is 
this:  A tremendous  struggle  is  in  progress  between  the  masses 
and  the  classes  for  the  control  of  the  wealth  of  the  nation,  and  in 
this  great  struggle  the  universities  will  all  sooner  or  later  be  in- 
volved. They  must  exert  their  influence  for  or  against  the 
laws  and  policies  which  concentrate  wealth  in  the  hands  of  the 
few.  In  a word,  they  must  become  champions  of  the  people  or 
pensioners  of  the  moneyed  classes  and  supporters  of  their  inter- 
ests. President  Hyde,  from  whose  address  at  Boston  University  I 
quoted  a moment  ago,  has  coined  a new  word,  “ Rockefellerism,’  * 
as  a synonym  of  capitalistic  control  of  a university.  He  may  be 
doing  Mr.  Rockefeller  a gross  injustice  in  suggesting  that  his 
more  than  pripcely  gifts  to  a neighboring  institution  have  behind 
them  any  secondary  and  sinister  design.  I prefer  to  think 
that  Mr.  Rockefeller  and  Mr.  Carnegie  and  the  other  great 
financial  geniuses  who  are  also  great  givers  are  living  up  to  all  the 


7 


light  they  have.  Their  liberality  is  certainly  as  wonderful  and 
unparalleled  as  any  of  the  great  American  achievements  which 
are  astonishing  the  world  in  our  day. 

“’Tis  from  high  life  high  characters  are  drawn; 

A saint  in  crape  is  twice  a saint  in  lawn.’  ’ 

A generous  rich  man  is  often  more  worthy  of  praise  than  a 
generous  poor  one,  for  he  has  a greater  weight  of  resistance  to 
overcome.  It  is  as  true  now  as  when  Jesus  uttered  it:  “ How 
hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.”  I think  we  should  all  join  with  our  sister  university 
in  cordial  recognition  of  Mr.  Rockefeller’s  great  services  to 
the  cause  of  education.  Deprecating  all  evil  imputations  and 
putting  the  most  natural  and  best  construction  upon  the  bene- 
factions of  rich  men,  let  us  look  at  the  question  quite  impersonally 
as  a matter  of  public  policy  upon  which  honest  men  are  certain 
soon  to  differ  sharply.  President  Hyde  speaks  thus  of  the  rights 
of  a donor  to  a college:  “A  donor  has  no  more  right  to  dictate 
what  views  an  institution  shall  teach  than  a stockholder  of  a 
steamship  company  has  a right  to  direct  a pilot  how  he  shall  steer 
the  ship  to  which  a thousand  lives  have  been  entrusted.  * * * 
Neither  may  he  legitimately  draw  up  a creed  or  statement  of 
opinion  which  the  professors  in  the  institution  shall  be  bound 
to  teach.  To  do  that  would  be  like  sending  a boat  to  sea  with 
the  tiller  lashed  in  position,  and  with  instructions  to  the  sailors 
on  no  account  to  touch  it,  even  though  the  boat  might  be  making 
straight  for  the  icebergs  or  the  rocks.  The  attempt  of  a donor 
to  dictate  the  views  which  a professor  shall  teach  is  to  arro^ 
gate  to  himself  the  attributes  of  omniscience,  omnipotence,  and 
immortality;  an  arrogance  of  which  no  mortal  would  care  to 
be  guilty.’  ’ 

The  history  of  the  past  has  certainly  shown,  that  gifts  in 
support  of  the  prevailing  religious,  political  or  social  opinions 
have  often  in  a short  time  become  mischievous  obstructions  to 
necessary  change,  mere  temptations  to  men  to  perpetuate  an 
outworn  belief  or  useless  routine  because  there  was  a sure  and 


8 


ea'sv  livelihood  to  be  gained  by  so  doing.  The  courts  of  almost 
every  civilized  country  have  been  obliged  to  abrogate  the  con- 
ditions attached  to  ecclesiastical  endowments  and  to  apply  to 
other  purposes  funds  which  were  maintaining  mistaken  and 
mischievous  opinions  and  demoralizing  the  men  who  accepted 
them.  These  endowments  have  sometimes  become  subtle  forms 
of  bribery  and  made  the  faith  and  piety  of  ancestors  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  virtues  of  their  descendants. 

All  that  T wish  to  do  in  touching  upon  this  great  subject  is,  if 
possible,  to  impress  the  Alumni  Association  with  a deeper  sense 
of  its  privileges  and  duties  in  connection  with  the  University. 
I have  no  revolutionary  program  or  spirit.  I advocate  no 
constitutional  change,  no  agitation,  no  demands,  not  even  any 
requests  to  the  Trustees,  but  this  simple  policy  that  every 
member-  of  the  Alumni  Association  should  take  a constant  and 
intelligent  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  University,  so  that  his 
influence  will  always  be  felt. 

I think  that  the  Trustees  are  heartily  in  accord  with  this  view, 
and  desire  our  co-operation.  It  is  interesting  to  note  the  fact 
that,  although  the  University  is  only  half  a century  old,  and  its 
graduates  are  still  comparatively  few  in  number,  and  very 
many  of  them  are  still  young  men,  they  are  already  so  largely 
represented  in  the  governing  corporation.  The  Board  of  Trustees 
consists  of  forty-four  members,  of  whom  nofew'er  than  eleven  are 
graduates  of  the  College  of  Liberal  Arts. 

James  Russell  Lowell  makes  Hosea  Biglow  say  of  a little  red 
school  house : 

“ Wal,  here  it  wuz  I larned  my  ABC, 

An’  it’s  a kind  o’  favorite  spot  with  me.’ ’ 

And  Byron  in  sad  retrospect  declares : 

“ Dear  is  the  schoolboy  spot 
We  ne’er  forget  though  there  we  are  forgot.’  ’ 

Those  who  spend  four  years  amid  these  scenes  of  beauty  and 
grandeur;  those  who  gather  knowledge  and  train  their  minds 
in  these  halls,  those  who  own  Northwestern  as  a genuine  Alma 


9 


Mater,  as  the  real  mother  of  their  intellectual  faculties,  their  real 
guide  into  the  problems  of  life,  will  never  forget  or  cease  to  love 
her. 

If  this  Association  does  its  duty,  in  another  half  century  the 
majority  of  the  governing  Board  will  be  Alma  Mater’s  own 
beloved  children.  The  University  in  all  probability  has  hundreds 
of  years  of  life  before  it,  and  the  best  assurance  that  I can  think 
of  that  through  all  its  coming  centuries  its  far-reaching  influence 
shall  be  for  good,  that  it  shall  respond  to  the  changing  needs  of 
men,  and  shall  advance  with  the  advance  of  knowledge  is  that 
it  shall  always  be  governed  by  those  who  know  it  and  love  it. 

Every  member  of  every  graduating  class  should  become  a 
member  of  this  Association,  and  I think  that  a few  years  of  well- 
directed  effort  under  the  new  By-Law  dispensing  with  an 
initiation  fee  would  secure  this  result.  It  would,  I think,  be  a 
great  help  to  this  end  if  every  year  one  of  the  exercises  on  our 
program  should  be  an  address  of  w-elcome  to  the  graduating 
class  and  a response  by  some  one  selected  by  the  class  to  repre- 
sent it. 

I think  that  legislative  and  financial  questions  should  not  be 
allowed  to  consume  so  much  time  at  these  gatherings.  I should 
like  to  have  the  business  meeting  in  the  forenoon  and  a lunch 
at  12 :30  in  a big  tent  on  the  campus,  and  after  luncheon  a free  and 
easy  program  of  songs  and  speeches. 

I have  one  other  recommendation  to  make,  and  that  is  that 
the  name  of  this  Association  be  changed  from  The  Alumni  Associa- 
tion of  N orthwestern  University  to  The  Alumni  Association  of  the 
College  of  Liberal  Arts  of  N orthwestern  University . Every  other 
department  of  the  University  has  its  own  Alumni  Association,, 
and  to  ignore  them  seems  a needless  discourtesy  and  tends  to 
prevent  the  perfect  union  of  feeling  we  all  desire.  Truth, 
justice  and  kindness  are  principles  that  should  govern  in  all 
the  relations  of  life. 

It  is  a pleasure  to  thank  all  my  colleagues  for  cordial  support 
in  the  various  matters  which  have  required  our  attention,  and 


10 


which  consume  so  much  of  that  time  which  is  these  busy  days, 
is  hard  to  spare. 

It  is  with  great  sorrow  that  1 report  the  death  during  the  year 
of  Mrs.  Mary  Hill  Sheets,  of  the  class  of  1884.  Mrs.  Sheets  at 
the  time  of  her  death  was  a membr  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  and 
in  accordance  with  Article  2 of  the  By-Laws  the  Directors 
elected  Mr.  William  A.  Burch,  of  the  class  of  1890,  the  Financial 
Secretary  of  the  University,  to  fill  the  vacant  position.  This 
temporary  election  requires  your  confirmation  to  make  it  valid 
for  the  full  term  of  three  years. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

Charles  William  Pearson. 


Note. — This  report  is  published  by  order  of  the  Alumni  Association.  Mr. 
James  H.  Raymond,  of  the  class  of  1871,  was  appointed  a committee  to 
publish  it,  and  through  his  influence  it  is  printed  without  charge  to  the  Asso- 
ciation by  the  Gunthorp- Warren  Printing  Company,  of  Chicago,  Illinois. 


